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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoTom Dodge | DispatchKyle Caldwell, center, is expected to plead guilty to felonious assault. He was in court yesterday with his mother, Crystal Caldwell, and attorney Stephen Dehnart.

A 3-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after she was injured by a stray bullet that
investigators say was fired by a 17-year-old boy during an argument at a Hilltop intersection in
June.

One of the bullets ricocheted and struck the girl in the forehead as she stood in front of a
house on Palmetto Street just east of Hague Avenue.

“The bullet pierced her skin but did not pierce her skull,” Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor
Christopher Clark said yesterday in Juvenile Court. “She’s lucky the wound only required some
stitches.”

Kyle Caldwell, the teen accused of firing the shot, agreed during the hearing to have his case
transferred to adult court, where he is expected to accept a plea deal that will send him to prison
for seven years.

Caldwell, of 3461 Westway Dr. on the Hilltop, was charged with two delinquency counts of
felonious assault — one for the child and the other for the man he was accused of trying to
shoot.

Clark said Caldwell and “some associates” were arguing with a man about 9:30 p.m. on June 14
when Caldwell pulled a handgun and fired several shots.

Prosecutors filed a motion asking Juvenile Court Judge Terri Jamison to transfer the case to
adult court. Caldwell admitted yesterday that prosecutors had sufficient evidence to establish that
he probably committed the crime.

He also admitted that the factors in favor of transferring the case outweighed the factors in
favor of keeping the case in Juvenile Court.

Clark said an agreement has been reached under which Caldwell will plead guilty and be sentenced
to four years in prison for felonious assault and three years for a gun specification after he is
indicted by a grand jury.

Defense attorney Stephen Dehnart said his client decided that reaching a deal with prosecutors
now could mean a shorter sentence than if he had waited until after the case was transferred to
adult court.

“When you hit a 3-year-old, that’s never good,” Dehnart said.

The case “is just sad,” he said. “These kids do things, and they don’t think about the
consequences.”